In 2019, a girl from Ireland sent a message in a bottle on a journey – four years later the bottle with the message washed up on a beach in Wildwood, USA. The finders go in search of the sender – and find him.
The fascination of a message in a bottle is unbroken to this day – an American family just experienced that. Frank Bolger and his wife Karen were out with granddaughter Autum Karen on Wildwood Beach near their summer home. Before a day at the beach, they have made it a routine to pick up rubbish on a long walk.
The family makes a special find among the rubbish
It was August 16, a Wednesday. “On the way back, my wife noticed the bottle in a clump of seaweed. She reached down to grab them and I opened the garbage bag – we almost threw them away! Then she exclaimed, ‘Oh, there’s a note in there,'” Frank told the Irish Star.
Because the neck of the bottle was so narrow, they were only able to unravel the secret at home in the evening with the help of tweezers.
Bottle with message has long journey behind it
The piece of paper he had to pull out was dated July 17, 2019. “Greetings from Ireland. I threw this bottle into the sea for someone to find someday. Maybe she traveled to Africa or Iceland! I won’t know if anyone finds her, but I hope she is found!” This text was signed with the name “Aoife”.
American family goes in search of sender
At first, the Bolgers didn’t know how to publicize their find. But Frank has a friend at Wildwood Sun by the Sea Magazine, and with the help of his newspaper, the word spread quickly.
Frank also tuned in to local news stations. He explained that Wildwood has a “huge Irish-American population”. His hope was that the strange story would also spread through family contacts.
Sender found by Irish TV
Ultimately, Irish television also reported on the mysterious message in a bottle. That’s how Martin Byrne found out about it – and correctly concluded that his daughter Aoife had sent them out. Together with the enthusiastic sender, he contacted the Bolgers.
Frank is still moved: “I couldn’t believe it. I never thought we would find her,” he confessed on the local TV channel.
